Welcome to the third continuous installment of the AoKH AI Scripting Ladder, now supporting Userpatch for the first time. Here you can enter your AI to compete against AIs with a wide range of abilities and a huge range of strategies. Whether it's to improve your AI's skill or whether you want to enjoy the exciting fun and community it provides, the Userpatch AI scripting ladder will suit your needs.

The Userpatch (UP) is a community patch that provides enormous benefits to the game, allowing AIs to become exponentially more intelligent, among others. Click here to download the patch and learn about everything the Userpatch can do! You'll find many scripters here who are more than willing to help you learn how to script and how to use the new UP commands.

Also, if you enjoy scripting, you should join the AI scripters community at http://forums.aiscripters.com/. You can also find a guide to AI scripting here and a guide to the new UP commands here.

How Do I Join?

If you want to enter the ladder, just drop a post in the thread with a link to your AI, tell us what civ you want it to play, and your AI will be added to the ladder.

When you enter your AI, it will play four unrated games against different opponents and given a rating based on its performance. Once your AI has been given a rating, your AI is ready to enter round play and climb up the ladder.

New: Each forummer can only have one AI in the ladder at any time.

How Does the Ladder Work?

Like multiplayer ladders, the AI ladder determines an AI script's overall skill ability over the course of several games and compares the skill ratings of other AIs to each other.

The AI Ladder uses the ELO system, the same system used to rank chess players or players on online gaming sites such as Voobly. The ladder is run in rounds with each AI grouped in a league of (ideally) five AIs according to ability. During each round, each AI will play each other AI in its league twice. The winning AI's score in each match will be increased according to its opponent's score, either a large amount if the AI defeated a higher ranked opponent or a smaller amount if the AI defeated a lower ranked opponent. The losing AI's score is decreased in the same way. Once the round is over, a new one begins, creating continuous cycles of competitive fun.

To make things more interesting, we randomize between Arabia, Ghost Lake, Gold Rush, Mongolia, Oasis, and Yucatan. To facilitate the randomization, you can download the official AI Ladder random map randomizer to test your AI and to test matches: link

AI Classes:

New: All AIs are divided into leagues according to ability, with ideally 5 AIs in each league. The leagues are reorganized at the end of each round to re-sort the AIs into the leagues by ability.

If an AI is the lowest-ranked AI, has at least 75 points lower than every other AI, and has lost at least three games in a row, the AI will likely be dropped unless the author requests the AI to remain in the ladder.

Game Requests:

New: Requested games no longer count for score, but they can be requested nevertheless.

Previous AI Ladders:

In addition, for those who like a bit of nostalgia, you can find the previous installments of the AI scripting ladder here:

Anyone can judge any of the games in the AI ladder, and judges do not have to sign up for a game before playing it. However, you may make a post in the thread if you wish to reserve a game to judge. Those who are willing to judge and record these games, please post for which games you would like to play. Authors should not judge games that contain their own AI. All games should be played on Hard difficulty, tiny map, 200 pop, Dark Age, low resources, and Conquest victory. The current version of the Userpatch (version 1.4) and the official randomizer map script should be used. Games will be considered a draw if they last more than two hours, unless an AI has less than 2 villagers at the two hour mark. Thus, you can end the game after two hours if you wish.

It is recommended that the judges cheat "natural wonders" so that there is no possibility of interference from the judge. However, if you feel that this would hamper your ability to review the game you may opt not to do this, as long as you provide the recorded game.

If you decide to use Cheat Engine's speedhack feature, please limit your games to x5 speed on Slow speed or x3 speed on Fast speed, unless one AI has clearly won the game and you want to speed up the "cleaning up" process. Any faster speedhack is prone to mess up AI functionality on slower computers.

Once the game is finished, please write a short review of the game. Provide helpful comments on what were each AI's weak points so that the authors of the scripts can know how to update them. Also post the recorded game link along with the review. To make it easier for us to gather information from the reviews, please post the reviews of the games in this format (just copy it into your post and edit it):

AI #1 (Civilization) vs. AI #2 (Civilization)

Map: Arabia (or whatever map is chosen)

1 Jan, 2013 (this date is just an example of the format)Map Type: Mongolia (or whatever map is chosen)

Review:

.........

Winner: (AI Name)Recorded Game link

Thanks for judging and reviewing! Here is the current schedule. Sign up for the games you would like to play:

Season 2

Round 4

Entrance Games:

1.

Entering AI:-

vs.

Opponents:-

Results:-

Cavaliers League:

AIs:BarbarianPromiJuggernautThe Horde

Round W-L4-00-40-22-0

vs. BarbarianxLLLL--

vs. PromiWWx--WW

vs. JuggernautWW--x--

vs. The Horde--LL--x

Knights League:

AIs:TRONDaedricIlluminatiCrusadeIS Machine

Round W-L2-23-34-21-32-2

vs. TRONxLWWL----

vs. DaedricWLxWL--WL

vs. IlluminatiLWLWxLL--

vs. Crusade----WWxLW

vs. IS Machine--LW--WLx

Squires League:

AIs:Tribal WarriorsBruteForceBossMeleonThe Unknown

Round W-L2-00-40-44-24-0

vs. Tribal WarriorsxLL------

vs. BruteForceWWx--WW--

vs. Boss----xWWWW

vs. Meleon--LLLLxWW

vs. The Unknown----LLLLx

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

I've run the Barbarian vs. Promi games and I'll post the reviews soon.

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

Leif EricsonSeraph Emeritus

posted
08-23-15 03:19 PM
CT (US)
952 / 1174

Barbarian (Japanese) vs. Promi (Aztecs)

Map: Mongolia

Promi got a good draw. Let's see if it pays off.

Barbarian went for a 23 pop, 10.5 min Feudal and went for 2 ranges and archers. Promi advanced a minute later and went for a similar strategy. Barbarian held off on flushing however and changed plans to advance to the Castle Age at 25 min. Promi advanced at 26.5 min. Barbarian attacked at 28 min. He had the advantage of having the elite skirmisher upgrade with his crossbowmen while Promi only had xbows and normal skirmishers. However, Promi was able to mass his soldiers into a larger group and Barbarian retreated. Barbarian however had a better economy at this point, perhaps because of his two TCs.

Barbarian attacked again at 32 min. Promi got the upper hand once again. A third attack came at 39 min but it was a stalemate once again. Barbarian was one step ahead again, this time in advancing to the Imperial Age. Both sides had castles at the edge of their town, but Barbarian constructed a forward castle, although it was a bit off to the side. Regardless, it was soon destroyed by capped rams. At the same time, Barbarian attacked again, this time with a lot of siege. Promi couldn't provide an organized defense, primarily because of Barbarian's onagers. However, I think Barbarian's victory was probably due to a superior economy.

Winner: Barbarian

Promi (Vikings) vs. Barbarian (Mongols)

Map: Arabia

Both AIs feudaled around the same time. Promi went archers and spears while Barbarian went scouts and skirms. An attack from Barbarian came at 21 min. It was mostly a battle between both armies, one that Barbarian lost because of fewer numbers. A second raid from Barbarian at 26 min was a little more successful at disrupting Promi's villagers. The attack was also a lot more successful militarily, probably because Barbarian's soldiers attacked as a formed mass rather than a scattered group of individual soldiers. By the time Promi advanced to the Castle Age, Barbarian was up by over 40 pop. Eventually Promi forced a retreat with some knights, but Barbarian had basically won the game.

Winner: Barbarian

Tron (Mongols) vs. Juggernaut (Huns)

Map: Oasis

Tron advanced at 12 min while Juggernaut's feudal seemed delayed, perhaps by a late second boar. Tron went scouts/skirms, while Juggernaut went spears and ranged units. Juggernaut attacked at 26 min and also built a forward tower. Despite not seeming to have enough spears to counter Tron's scouts, Juggernaut gained the upper hand, perhaps through attacking from both sides. Actually, that's because Tron decided to garrison his newly created troops. However, this allowed Juggernaut to kill off several villagers, and the reinforcements weren't enough to drive off Juggernaut. However, Juggernaut's forces were diminished enough that future waves of soldiers weren't enough to create any more of an advantage. Nevertheless, at 32 min Juggernaut advanced to the Castle Age. But, he ended his attack to build up his forces. By 43 min Juggernaut had imperialed and maxed out his pop while Tron was barely at 100 pop. Once Juggernaut's attack came, the game was over.

Juggernaut (Huns) vs. Tron (Mongols)

Map: Mongolia

Juggernaut attempted a 5 militia drush this game. The militia arrived at 11 min, one minute before Tron feudaled. The drush kept some villagers from gathering, but the militia mostly attacked buildings. However, the militia successfully avoided Tron's TC arrow fire even when following retreating villagers. I'm impressed. Juggernaut advanced at 14.5 min. The m@a were defeated at 18 min and both AIs had approximately the same pop counts. Tron went scouts/archers while Juggernaut went ranged units. A scattered attack came from Juggernaut at 22 min. Tron won pretty easily. Tron advanced to the Castle age at 28 min and attacked at 30 min, but Juggernaut had enough spears to counter Tron's lt cav. Juggernaut castled soon after, but Tron was already up in economy because of his extra TCs. A second attack from Tron at 36 min proved unsuccessful however, but a third one did. Tron imperialed seconds before victory.

Winner: Tron

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

CheeseOnToastSquire

posted
08-24-15 02:50 AM
CT (US)
953 / 1174

Thanks for casting Leif!

I also released an update to BruteForce (2.06)

John the LateKnight

posted
09-18-15 09:33 PM
CT (US)
954 / 1174

Oh, just noticed the changed format. I think I'm going to judge some games soon!

Illuminati immediately goes for a mill, then adds shepherds. Horde takes sheep first, and then builds a mill before the first lumber camp, too. However, being Persians reduces the delay to the lumber camp to 10 straggler wood.

Illuminati kills the first boar halfway to the TC, somewhere between mill and lumber camp. Horde is more successful.

Horde clicks up to feudal at 25, Illuminati at 30 population. Both have their scout but no additional military.

In the feudal age, Horde makes scouts and a few ranged units, Illuminati none, it clicks up to castle at 32 pop.

Horde then attacks at 15 mins, without any army upgrades. A few scouts fall to villagers but also kill one, then the whole army retreats from TC fire repeatedly, attacking again afterwards. Almost no damage is done, and most scouts lost to villagers and spearmen. Illuminati goes castle age and starts eagle production, which Horde detects properly. Without armor upgrades, however, the eagles and spears of Illuminati fall to the feudal army (which now has archery upgrades) of The Horde.

Horde proceeds to castle age itself, has a superior economy, gets xbow upgrade, drops down 2 TCs and starts knight production. Illuminati still lacks upgrades, makes mangonels and monks, which do damage but don't turn out to be terribly effective for their cost. Horde gets a sizeable number of monks itself, and has a massive army and eco advantage.

At 29:42 mins when Horde says "duc: retreat to ram2" I noticed that Horde's monks stopped going for relics. I think this happened several times in games vs. it and was linked to the DUC attacking, but I am not sure. The relic was taken a few minutes later.

Suggestions:Illuminati: Eagle warrior/infantry armor upgrades, they really need that 2+2 to have an effect in castle age. A different method of attacking might also be better, as currently there's a constant stream of units that simply get picked off one after another.

Horde: On the one hand horde's retreating often saves it a lot of military units, on the other it often lets an army advantage go relatively unused (causes idles in TC but had potential to kill many). Game 2: RLM (Ladder) -> OasisIlluminati: AztecsHorde: FR -> Koreans

Mill first start by Illuminati again. Horde drops mill and LC almost at the same time, after chopping stragglers.

Both AIs kill the boars correctly under the TC now.

This time Illuminati goes up earlier, at 26 pop. Horde goes up first, though, at 25. -> Illluminati had free loom, so there must have been some idle TC.

Horde makes trash and adds archers in the feudal age, Illuminati goes for a FC with market + blacksmith, and reaches it at 16 mins. Horde loses scout at 18 mins in Illuminati's town, which marks the first fight.

Then Horde sends an attack from the left side, but gets attacked with eagles (lacking upgrades) from the right. The army retreats halfway, but the eagles are already killed by villagers, TC and a few units.

The Horde reaches the castle age almost 10 minutes later than Illuminati, at 25:34, but cannot really be seen at a disadvantage. Economy has 1 TC and a few villagers left, but the army keeps beating the unupgraded eagles that are sent one by one. The mangonels that were on their way get retreated when too many eagles die. Those could certainly have delivered a lot of damage against the feudal units.

Illuminati starts monk production and gets some conversions, but often not cost effective. In combination with the eagles, that are now upgraded, pikes and mangonels (and converted knights), however, they do their part, and Illuminati gains an army advantage and attacks from both sides of the oasis. Horde gets its own monks in the meanwhile, and wins the fight at its base. The Aztec monks and mangonels sadly arrive after the bulk of their army, and pose no real threat on their own, especially since they walk right up to the enemy instead of attacking, quite a few times.

A lengthy fight on the northern border of Horde's base ensues, during which Horde slowly builds its advantage. Illuminati advances to the imperial age first, but due to a lack of gold can't get the technologies to capitalise on that.

The fight moves to Illuminati's base, and Illuminati gets a large number of monks. It also gets many conversions, among them a trebuchet. Illuminati tries a push, but its army gets too scattered and Horde builds up a huge advantage. A good amount of units gets stuck on the inner lake, however the trebuchets among these raze Illuminati's closer buildings while being impervious to attack.

The Korean army of wagons + hand cannoneers + hussars + trebuchets proves unstoppable for Illuminati, and it resigns @1:08:43. Horde had 54 war wagons, Illuminati 53 conversions. The market price of food and wood was at minimum.

Suggestions: If the bulk of the army consists of eagles and pikes, 2 barracks are not enough for Illuminati.

Juggernaut starts mining gold without a mining camp to make militia, but does not find Barbarian until well into the feudal age and so the units stay at home.

Barbarian builds 2 archery ranges and a blacksmith and blocks a mining camp position at his main gold (which is close to 2 forests) with one of the archery ranges, and builds a defensive tower at its lumbercamps. Meanwhile, Juggernaut continues mining gold without a mining camp.

Juggernaut also shows what will become a recurring sight in this game: idle farms. It also builds 2 archery ranges and a blacksmith.

Barbarian sends its archer + skirmisher army to attack, but Juggernaut's scout draws their attention and drags the whole army around the oasis behind Barbarian's base. During this, it finally finds Barbarian and sends a belated "drush", now upgraded to men-at-arms, while making more archers/skirmishers at home. Those, however, are not sent to attack.

Thanks to Barbarian's army being on the wrong side of his town (credit to Juggernaut's scout), the men-at-arms actually manage to kill 2 villagers before facing their inevitable fate.

At ~19:30, population is surprisingly equal, with 25 army/41 villagers for Barbarian and 22 army/43 villagers for Juggernaut. About this time, Juggernaut starts training men-at-arms again, which are promptly sent to attack as soon as they are created. (?)

However, Barbarian is very passive with its army and keeps them in town, so those M@A actually kill a couple more lumberjacks, despite being sent one by one.

Juggernaut builds a forward tower and engages Barbarian's army while the latter is on its way to the castle age. Barbarian wins the fight, but loses most of the army before they get their castle age upgrades. The tower keeps routing Barbarian's army for a minute, and Juggernaut reaches the castle age.

Barbarian attacks Juggernaut with xbows + eskirms and a knight, having mangonels on their way but being far behind. Jugger is far inferior in numbers, but manages to kill of the attack with a combination of scouts, knights, mangonels and cav archers.

Both AIs start training monks, and Barbarian adds a whole lot of spears. However, Barbarian really suffers from not mining the main gold. Unlike Juggernaut, which places its TCs next to the central forest (even very far away on the south east side), Barbarian places its next to farms... and a cliff.

Now comes a long peace time, with both AIs enlarging their economy and army, and Juggernaut winning the relic collection 4:1. The AIs remain outright passive for over 15 minutes.

Barbarian lacks a market, and builds up a truly massive food stockpile while lacking gold, and thus cannot advance to the Imperial age for quite a while.A market is built at 43:25, when Barbarian has over 2700 food. The second Juggernaut reaches the Imperial age, Barbarian finally clicks up. A defensive castle that could have worked wonders is cancelled at 80+% by a single elite skirmisher attacking one of the builders.

Juggernaut reaches the imperial age and gets chemistry before bracer, as the blacksmith is busy. Both AIs sit on 200 population and don't attack. Barbarian even mines one of Juggernaut's far gold mines. A new castle is built in the same spot as before by Barbarian, this time by only one builder. Barbarian's scout lures Juggernaut's army, and (who would have guessed) the castle gets cancelled again.

The "final" fight starts and I really wasn't sure who'd win it, with heavy camels, halberds, and persian-fully-upgraded eskrims and a good amount of monks for Barbarian and Hussars, HCA, Cavaliers and eskirms for Jugger, who also had many monks coming from the back. Both have siege in the back. As Juggernauts siege rams arrive and start to draw fire, the fight quickly changes into its favour.

The rest is just cleaning up. Barbarian resigns at 57:17.

Suggestions: For Juggernaut: More than 1 blacksmith later on. It had the resources to get the upgrades, but couldn't. Also no training of m@a in feudal age against an archer-based army, it was pure luck that they could even kill 2 villagers.

Barbarian: I really don't know if it's possible, but not letting the army get dragged back by a single scout would be great. Also, I think that Juggernaut's TC placement on oasis might be better, with the TCs close to the central forest instead of in open space. Market was definitely too late. And increasing the maximum drop distance for gold earlier like it did in the end could have helped with the semi-stuck mines.

The start is pretty standard without anything to note. The difference is that Barbarian pushes deer while Juggernaut scouts for the enemy instead. Juggernaut doesn't want to tell me when I type 250, but it goes for a drush again.

The drush arrives at 10 mins and causes some lumberjack idle time, but no deaths. Instead, 1 militia is lost to the villagers. Barbarian reaches feudal.

Juggernaut mines gold without a camp for an extended period of time again, and starts hunting deer at a pretty exposed forward location, on the feet of a hill. Soon after Juggernaut loses its remaining 2 militiamen and the scout without having done any further damage.

Barbarian scouts the hunters and attacks with a few archers/skirmishers. Despite half of the villagers (3/6) being low on health already, they retreat successfully. Juggernaut's spearmen get killed by the archery units, and its own archery army is far smaller.

Juggernaut sends the hunters back to hunt, right into the archers of Barbarian, and they receive further damage, yet retreat successfully again. On the 3rd time they go hunting, one of the injured villagers is killed. Juggernaut wins a small engagement after the majority of Barbarian's army retreats gets drawn away by a lonely scouting skirmisher (who gets wolved, freeing up the archers/skirms that followed him around the map again).

A single archer idles about 15 lumberjacks of Juggernaut for a while.

At 24~ Juggernaut starts a large attack, including a somewhat forward tower, and even has the hill advantage, but also restarts a pointless production of m@a. At this point it looks like Juggernaut has the advantage, but Barbarian advances to the castle age while Juggernaut has not even clicked up. With the xbows and elite skirmishers with bodkin arrow, the attackers get killed quickly, despite fighting uphill. From now on, Juggernaut's troops just get sent to their certain death, one by one.

Like before, the tower stalls Barbarian's attacking for a short time, and Juggernaut catches up, reaching the castle age and training elite skirmishers, knights, light cavalry and mangonels. And a few CA. This works well for a while, routing Barbarian. Juggernaut again wins the relics 4:1. One of its town centers is pretty far forward, and risky being next to a hill. Barbarian instead builds a castle forward, on the hill.

Juggernaut clicks up to imp first, but loses many units in minor fights. Eventually, both reach the imperial age and sit in their bases for a while. Juggernaut has a little unusual upgrading, and I get to see HCA having every tech but bracer. This tech is researched many minutes later, after various other techs, while already in a big fight with Barbarian's Mongol troops. Having only half of the army fight certainly wasn't beneficial for Juggernaut, especially considering that they were at a hill disadvantage. When the real fight between the full armies starts, it looks balanced for a while, even like Juggernaut was winning, but then its army follows the one of Barbarian while it retreats, getting caught in a disadvantageous fight near 2 castles and down a hill.

Another short pause of regrouping and rebuilding army, then Juggernaut continues taking bad fights.

Long lategame fight now, not much to say, apart from rams being overpowered as always. Barbarian wins the fight, Juggernaut is low on resources, and the rest is cleaning up. Juggernaut resigns at 1:09:39.

Notes: Juggernaut should take bracer before iron casting if there are enough ranged units. All in all, with this large numbers of CA+eskirm, I'd take it as the right away (2 blacksmiths) or right after plate barding armor (1 blacksmith).

Hints for Bruteforce: The AI seems to start of without a actual strict plan. chopping tons of wood without using it. and then dropping several farms as soon as he clicks up to feudal-age. Making mid/late dark-age verry uneffective and vonerable if a boar or couple of sheep are missed. Suggesting to drop atleast 2 farms when you get the wood. don't mass it up to have 400. battle later on: Soldiers seem to be prefaired over villagers. which in the second game ment the eco of bruteforce stalled compleetly priotising skirm spam the entire game against huskarls and swordman. Also the contiues creating of mangonels vs huskarls didnt exactly work out. IS_machine did had some ranged units but not enough to be counterd this extreem.

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

AlephSquire

posted
08-18-16 04:07 PM
CT (US)
976 / 1174

Thank you Leif!!!!

New Illu released, go ahead and judge the games!

BruteForce 3 (beta) vs. The Unknown 2 (beta)Both AIs are pre-release versions I got directly from their scripters. Both AIs are at the bottom of the table anyway, so improving them is more important than to determine which one is better. CheeseOnToast requested specific civs, since BruteForce3 isn't able to play all civs yet.Leif, if these setting violate the rules, please tell me. In that case I will replay the matches with the stable AI versions and regard these as test games.

Match 1Map: Ghost LakeBruteForce - HunsThe Unknown - Random -> Turks

BruteForce does a standard 2-range flush with archers and skirms, Unknown goes for a scout rush. Both AIs build a defensive tower. Intead of aborting its attack, Brute walks its units into the enemy tower repeatedly only to retreat once they're shot at. Unknown stopped producing military unit after his initial few scouts and goes castle, but the tower keeps its base safe.Brute reaches Castle Age a few minutes after Unknown and start producing cav archers - but it keeps retreating from Unk's tower. The Unknown loses a bunch of villager trying to build a forward TC, but drops a Castle in its own base and starts producing Janissaries - though they die quickly to Brute's army. Once Brute finally produces rams it starts pushing Unk's defences for the first time. Even though they keep getting massacred, The Unknown keeps sending more and more villager to build forward buildings. At that point, the game is basically over.

Match length: 53:16Winner: BruteForce

Match 2Map: ArabiaBruteForce - MayansThe Unknown - Random -> Teutons

Bruteforce tries to do a drush, completing its barracks at 7 minutes game time. It has a little bit of TC idle time, however. Sadly its scout isn't able find the enemy, and the 3 militiamen just idle in front of the rax. It decides to go for FC xbows, but has too few farms (only 6) when it clicks up to feudal and a whopping 11 villagers on berries. Meanwhile, The Unknown attacks with spears, skirms and a forward tower, forcing Brute off its wood and causing it to build a defensive tower. This delays its blacksmith, and in turn its Castle Age time. While upping to Castle Age, it hunts deers ~40 tiles away. Then it send its few xbows one by one to die to The Unknown's tower. Even though Unknown still hasn't reached castle, it has a considerable score lead at this point. BruteForce builds 2 additional TCs but isn't even remotely able to keep up vill production in more than 1.The Unknown advances to castle and masses a considerable force of Xbows, while Brute is still sending its own to die one by one to the forward tower. It has a siege workshop, but needs all the wood it has to build more farms. Finally it starts producing mangonels and is able to know down the tower, after having lost countless xbows to it. The Unknown swiftly advances to Imperial Age and attacks with unupgraded spearmen, battering rams and xbows that lack any imperial upgrades (to be fair, Teutons don't have neither Bracer nor Arbalest). It loses the fight vs Brute's xbows and mangonels. BruteForce counterattacks with its tiny army, and The Unknown keeps training xbows and pikes.The Unknown starts gaining some ground again (yes, still same army composition for both AIs) and builds a castle in the middle of the map. Meanwhile, BruteForce keeps sending vills to die trying to build a forward siege workshop. It also builds 8 (!) barracks but doesn't train a single unit in them. Instead it trains siege rams and plumes+trebs from a single castle. It has > 2000 excess food despite continuously selling it at the market.BruteForce's plumed archers manage to gain the upper hand over The Unknown's pikemen (wow), but it does insist on sending vills to their deaths still trying to build forward siege workshops or castles - the number of vills it has lost in this way must be around 100 by now. But hey, it wins the game anyway.

This game was like watching a trainwreck. At least there's no shortage of things to improve or fix.

Tribal gets off to a bad start: Trying to build its first lumber camp on the far side of a forest, a loomless villager is killed by a jaguar. Some rules to guess the first lumber camp's maximum distance (determined by how long it takes to find wood) would've prevented this. This lumber camp placement also leads to long initial walking times for the villagers who are sent to chop wood. Tribal hunts 3 javelina, ups with 26pop and goes for a skirm flush. Immediately upon entering Feudal, it also builds a tower on its second lumber camp, but not really in a useful position.Meanwhile, Crusade does an M@A flush, supported by a few ranged units. It builds a defensive tower that helps a lot in the fighting. Tribal switched to archers, but at this point Crusade's army composition has already shifted to mainly skirmishers. Crusade wins the fight, but loses the remnants of its attack force to Tribal's TC. The fight is going back and forth - the AIs taking turns attacking each other's town, being repelled and counter-attacking. Tribal is able to kill a bunch of villagers in Crusade's very exposed forward lumber camp. Crusade however has amassed a sizeable army of archers and skirms, decisively wins the last feudal fight and advances to the Castle Age. In turn, Tribal, which has already mined quite a lot of stone, builds 2 defensive towers in front of its base. Even though Crusade has no siege weapons, it takes on the towers - with help from the first knights who start arriving just in time. Even though it takes some time to knock down the towers, Crusade kills a lot of villagers and causes some more idle time. Tribal's villagers run to build another tower, but are massacred. Even after being reduced to 0 pop, Tribal does not resign. It is defeated.

Illuminati missed a boar and seemed to have no real objective with strategy and no economy (3 ranges is a bit excessive for Aztecs when xbow FC) and thus The Horde's flush was able to easily take it out.

Winner: The Horde

Game 2:

Illuminati (Aztecs) Vs The Horde (Random->Goths)Map: Yucatan

The Horde had the unit composition advantage for awhile but never used it, it played very defensively but boomed a lot better but was meaningless as Illuminati went for every AI's worst fear of elite eagle warriors.

Illuminati had some weird gold camp placement issues (placed 4 camps down in total) but the scary Eagle flood won the game for it as Daedrics army mostly consisted of skirmishers and a few archers.

Winner: Illuminati

Illuminati (Aztecs) Vs Daedric(Random->Mayans)Map: Mongolia

Illuminati decided to go for m@a's + skirmishers which are very effective because of the Aztec eco bonus + military training speed bonus, Mayan Daedric didn't expect it coming and was under pressure the whole game, it kept suiciding villagers until it resigned.

Promi's drush didn't do enough damage because of a strange micro glitch, Promi had advantage for awhile by Tron built a defensive tower and slowly boomed and created a larger and better composition army than Promi which in turn won Tron the game.

Winner: Tron

Promi(Random->Chinese) vs Tron(Mongols)Map: Oasis

Promi was very passive with its archer flush and didn't scout enemy stable to make spearmen against Tron's scouts which ate its skirmishers and archers easily (as they had bloodlines) Promi also placed a strange forward tower that didn't do much and was easily destroyed by Tron's scouts, after it was destroyed, it placed a tower again in the same spot when in castle age, Promi eventually got the tech advantage though and started to kill Tron.

Hi Felipe! Of course you can help.CheeseOnToast already judged all the remaining games of this round, but there's still Tribal's placement games to run. First vs Illuminati, then either vs BruteForce or vs Boss (if it wins illu). We should probably finish the placement matches before the next round starts, so that Tribal can take part in it.

Both AIs went for a feudal war. Illu took the initiative with m@a + skirmishers but the attack was easily rejected because of a lack of control of the m@a. Then the counter was refused with a Illu garrisoned tower + units. Weird that Tribal trained spear-man and gave them +1 to counter Illus units as Aztec. Illu reached faster castle age (min 28 vs 31) and its attack was definitive, adding rams to its upgraded units (xbows + elite skirmishers).

I was so tempted to stop the game after min 38 when Tribal pop was 5 and the sore 7500 vs 2700 but I prefer to wait.

Tribal took the initiative similar than before, but with more archers. Boss defended itself with skirmishers and some militias, but this was not effective against the specialized range units + a hill. It passed to castle age in around 24 min. and massacred Boss with xbows and rams. Easy victory for Tribal here.

Jugger's drush gets 2 vill kills - better than usual. Promi goes Feudal and trains archers, but is unable to find the enemy. Promi's scouting code should probably be improved. When it finally finds Jugger's town at ~18 minutes, it attacks but quickly retreats from Jugger's skirm army. While retreating, its units stop, scattered around the middle of the map - which makes Jugger's counter-attack even more effective. Promi advances to Castle, but Jugger's attack has already done too much damage.Promi had some problems this game, and Jugger was able to take advantage.

Match time: 36:38Winner: Juggernaut

Match 2 - Gold Rush - Promi (random -> Franks) vs Juggernaut (Huns)

Promi has a bad start, finding its first sheep very late. Jugger drushes again, with 4 milita - this time it gets 1 vill kill, but loses its militia and scout to Promi's first archers. Oddly, Promi doesn't attack in the Feudal Age. Both AIs advance to the castle age and Jugger attacks with ranged units, knights, and begins adding cav archers - but Promi is barely able to defend. Both AIs boom to imp and advance at the same time. There are some skirmishes in the middle of the map while both AIs seem to be waiting for their unit upgrades. Unit composition at this point: Promi has palas, eskirms and capped rams; Jugger heavy cav archers, a few monks and all kinds of trash. Juggernaut wins the diciding fight and pushes with siege rams and trebs.

Finding its first sheep relatively quickly, Tribal has a pretty good start. It ups with 25 pop and does a skirm flush. BruteForce however quickly builds a defensive tower and starts training scouts. Tribal in response switches to archers+spears. It loses most of its army to Brute's tower, but causes quite some vill idle time. Despite training a lot of spears, it never researches their armour upgrade - but it gets the attack upgrade o0. Brute reaches castle a bit faster than Tribal, quickly overwhelms Tribal and starts massing cav archers.

Tribal decided drush, but it had some difficulties to find its enemy in Yucatan (lately it easily lost its 3 militias). It got castle at 18:30 attacking with knights (first time I have seen Tribal using knights, and it did quite well), and spear-men.Chameleon went for feudal war, but it was too late (13:40). It attacked with scouts followed by archers, but did little damage to Tribal protected with a tower at the front.